1. Purpose

The purpose of this document is to describe procedures for
implementing USB flash memory devices (memory sticks) on
Linux. This entails the following:

making over-the-counter devices, pre-formatted for the MS
Windows system, work on Linux;

formatting the device in the ext2 filesystem on a single
partition and making it work. This is intended for situations
where the device will be used exclusively on Linux machines;

formatting the device on a dual partition in the ext2 and
vfat filesystems and making it work. The purpose of this
is for situations where Linux + Linux and Linux + Windows are
possible;

making the device more user friendly;

maintaining the filesystem of the device;

using additional features of Linux-2.6.x.

The procedures described in this document should work on
any USB memory stick device which can be operated as a read-write
device. Read-only devices do not fall in this category. The
procedures will not work if the write facility of the device is
disabled (i.e. if the write protect switch is on).

The procedures described for formatting and maintenance in
particular filesystems may (in principle) be adapted for other
filesystems such as ext3 and reiserfs. These have not been tried
and tested. Neither has any attention been paid to adaptation of
the procedures to other related operating systems.

It may be dangerous to re-format the flash memory
intended for a digital camera. The camera may then be unable to
understand it. Use the camera's built-in menu system to do this
reformatting for you.